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How Fast is Your Broadband?

A recent study by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) shows that the United States is not as high on the list of countries with the fastest internet as you might think. We are not even in the top 25, coming in at the 28th fastest country in the world, with the first, South Korea, a whopping four times faster than we are. This is not to say that the whole country is slow—these are country averages, so there are states that have an advantage. Most of the top states are in the Northeast, including Delaware, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. Indiana is a little above the national average—downloading 5.7 megabits per second to the U.S.’s 5.1. Sadly, the country’s speed is not increasing at a rate which makes up likely catch up to Japan or Sweden in the near future.

The United States, according to the report, is the only industrialized country that does not have a national policy for the growth of high-speed internet, though the FCC is currently hard at work to change that. The report also mentions that the lack of speed puts us behind in business, education, and medicine. You can read the full CWA report here, or a nice summary here. You can also look for individual state legislation at CWA’s State Broadband Initiatives site.